Media: Release US force-feeding videos

Videos of prisoners being force-fed at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba should be released immediately, media organizations said on Monday, but the US government argued that doing so would compromise national security.

In early October, a federal judge in Washington ordered President Barack Obama's administration to make public 28 videos showing inmates being fed by tubes inserted through the nose.

The judge granted a 30-day delay on his order for the government to consider an appeal. A ruling on the release of the tapes is expected in early November.

"Releasing the videos as the court has ordered will give rise to security and operational harms" to the Guantanamo operation, said Rear Admiral Kyle Cozad, the commander of the US Guantanamo joint task force.

The videos show Syrian detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab as a feeding tube is inserted and removed, as well as the location of guards and the room used during the procedure, Cozad said, "all images that have not been released previously".

"It is hard to imagine a more explicit description of the process utilized than that which is found on videotapes of the actual execution," Cozad said.

He said the potential harm is all the more concerning because of the ongoing US military operations in the Middle East.

The videos provide a window into the layout of Camp Delta, where detainees are force-fed, and could undermine the functioning of the camp, the military has said.

The 16 news organizations that sued for the videos' release said the footage has been withheld for self-interested reasons.

"This is a case of the government seeking secrecy to prevent accountability, not to protect national security," said the news organizations, which include The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian.

"There is no imminent threat of a public release that might compromise national security," they argued in a court document.

The media groups said the videos cannot all be "reasonably" deemed as classified, and the government should redact the necessary information and release the remaining footage.

(China Daily 10/29/2014 page12)